"True Blood makes teen drama Twilight look like an after-school special on the Lifetime network. It's...for grown-ups, with enough plot twists and turns to shock your brain into overload."

— examiner.com

True Blood is a Supernatural Soap Opera produced by HBO and set in an alternative universe where vampires not only exist, but have recently publicized themselves through an event commonly referred to as The Great Revelation, and are now trying to coexist with humans. This has become possible with the invention of a special drink—the eponymous TruBlood—developed as a safe means to replace human blood.

Public opinions concerning vampire rights vary: some idealize vampires, others scorn them, the rest would rather mind their own business. The anti-vampire movement is also fueled by the fact that vampire blood is extremely addictive to humans and is known on the black market as the drug V. As a result, there exist drainers—people who earn their living hunting down vampires and exploiting them for their blood. Lest you think that Humans Are Bastards, the vampire spokesmen are uniformly corrupt and secretly dine on human blood, as TruBlood tastes revolting—and is overpriced, to boot.

The plot mainly follows Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), a young bar waitress from the small Louisiana town of Bon Temps. Sookie's a telepath, which makes life extremely problematic for her at times.

Her life changes drastically when Sookie meets a vampire for the first time. His name is Bill Compton and he used to live in Bon Temps about a hundred years ago. Sookie discovers that, unlike the thoughts of humans—which are constantly forced on her, requiring effort to shut out—the vampire's mind is a closed book to her, which she finds immensely refreshing. After she saves Bill from a couple of drainers, the two slowly fall in love. However, soon after that a serial killer appears in Bon Temps, targeting all women who sleep with vampires.

True Blood is based on The Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries; each season is loosely based on a single novel. The show differs greatly from the books however, adding a lot of adult content, graphic violence, and explicit sex, as well as a more diverse cast and a quirky, black-comedic atmosphere, in a way, being a spiritual successor to Alan Ball's previous series, Six Feet Under. Also, certain story elements are drastically changed from the books, to keep both readers and non-readers constantly wondering what will happen next.

Absurdly Ineffective Barricade: The rule about vampires needing to be invited into houses is in place...except they can hypnotize people into doing it, and it works, making you question what the purpose of the rule is.

Abusive Parents: Sam and Tommy's biological parents. Especially Joe Lee. Better throw Tara's mother in for good measure. And also her father.

While the books had Sookie as the sole POV character, the show has more of an ensemble cast, leading to characters getting bigger roles or changing completely, and minor subplots growing to major storylines. Depending on who you ask, this is done with rather mixed success.

Maryann's role in the show was greatly expanded from her role in the book, in which Callisto (the character Maryann was based on) is confined to a very small subplot. She attacks Sookie in order to make Eric aware that she's in town and demands tribute (which she receives). Later, she shows up at a sex party, revels in the drunken sexuality for a little while, and kills most of the people in attendance.

Tara, Sookie's best friend, was given a much bigger part, in addition to completely changing race, personality, and...well, everything else.

Lafayette was a minor character in the first book and gets murdered at the beginning of the second. On True Blood, he's become a major character, in part because of his status as Ensemble Dark Horse.

Luna becomes a series regular after her introduction in season 4. Interestingly, her appearance in Living Dead In Dallas was exclusive to helping Sookie escape from the Fellowship of the Light, yet she has shares not one scene with Sookie in the show.

Adaptation Name Change: The last names of a few vampires were changed in the journey from page to screen: Stan Davis becomes Stan Baker, Lorena Ball becomes Lorena Krasiki, and Pam's last name of Ravenscroft becomes the even more elaborate Swynford de Beaufort.

Adaptational Attractiveness: Inverted. Chow is described in the books as being very attractive, with long black hair and a body covered in rare tattoos. In the show, he's short and chubby with a short head of hair. Unusually for a vampire show, the ratio of human-to-vampire attractiveness tends to be about equal, even with a margin for error.

In-universe example: Amy Burlee, who is a vicious, conniving, V-addicted sociopath, but Jason still deeply mourns her death.

Maryann's excitement for her wedding and her tears of joy when she thought she'd finally be wed to her god had some viewers feeling extremely sympathetic for her when Sam finally ripped out her heart.

The expression on Daphne's face as she is murdered is quite heartbreaking.

Russell's heartbroken reaction to Talbot's death is quite moving...though also quite heavy on the squick.

The tears in Marnie's eyes as she screams "I am not a punching bag!" and the scene where she passes on to the afterlife.

Roman, for all his shouting and rage and ruthlessness, had dedicated his life to the idea of peace with humans. Subverted, as Roman was arguably a decent guy—except for his continual presentation as a Jerk Ass, with a near-constant stream of Kick the Dog moments. More of "Alas, Poor Antagonist."

Part of the show's premise is that vampire blood has magical properties as a healing agent and psychedelic/performance enhancing/any other kind of drug when ingested by humans. This leads to frequent instances of humans attacking vampires and drinking their blood, inverting the traditional roles.

Maryann, and presumably other maenads, have black blood that is poisonous to vampires.

Blood from a fairy or halfling, while being mostly normal, can allow vampires the ability to daywalk for a variable period of time. In the case of Warlow, who was a fairy prior to his conversion, this results in the ability to daywalk permanently.

Shreveport, the third-largest city in Louisiana, serves most of the urban needs for the setting, in an attempt to avert the usual problem with fictional towns when they have more institutions and specialized businesses than their size would suggest.

Eric's role as Sheriff and Russell Edgington's kingship of Mississippi also stand out, considering their age and power is easily on par with (if not far greater than) nearly every vampire in the series.

The Alleged Car: Sookie has a spectacularly hideous yellow Honda Civic that's older than she is.

While usually not that bad, Bill Compton is definitely darker than Sam Merlotte, and both vie for Sookie's affection. Guess who wins?

Inverted when Eric becomes a major character; Sookie's attraction to him is inversely proportional to how evil he's being at the time.

Alcide is a genuinely caring man, and it looked like his relationship with Debbie was going to be it. Then along came Cooter, an idiotic, V-juice addicted leader of a werewolf biker gang. Debbie decides to marry the latter. Later Debbie and Alcide get back together—only for her to cheat on him with the violent, unstable werewolf leader Marcus.

Speaking of Marcus, his ex-wife Luna admitted to being a cliche when explaining why she initially fell in love with him. She divorced him when he was unwilling to change his lifestyle for their daughter.

Jessica dumps loving, kind Hoyt for sexy-but-dumb bad boy Jason.

All Myths Are True: Discussed. After two seasons of telepaths, shapeshifters, vampires and maenads, werewolves turn out to exist. Sookie and Jason argue that Bigfoot might as well exist too. Or Santa for that matter.

All Love Is Unrequited: Tara for Jason, Sam for Sookie, Eric for Sookie, Alcide for Debbie. Although most of them move on in one way or another.

In the second and third season, Lorena's "relationship" with Bill essentially embodies this trope.

All Myths Are True/ Fantasy Kitchen Sink: We've seen vampires, shapeshifters, werewolves, werepanthers, fairies (also known as aliens), a maenad, witches (good and evil), a fire-demon, and a few ghosts so far.

All of the Other Reindeer: In the first season, most folks are wigged out by Sookie's telepathy and rationalize it that she's crazy or mentally weak. If they won't rationalize it, they use it as a reason to be cruel to her. They are also somewhat wigged out by Bill and vampires in general.

In the season finale of season 1, Sookie receives a ride home from Rene, just as Sam and Arlene realize separately that he is the killer. The audience was given reason to suspect him earlier, when the Bon Temps police received an ignored fax with information on him under his real name. Sookie reads his mind and runs into the woods, with Rene following close behind.

Tara with Franklin Mott outside Merlotte's after she thought he was dead. Thankfully not alone for too long.

Always Chaotic Evil: Zig-Zagged, Deconscructed and Reconstructed. In the beginning there was more emphasis on how vampires are basically cursed humans who still have the capacity to choose right and wrong, who are all still individuals, and who therefore have a case when they demand equal rights with humans. As the show goes on the moral ambiguities and murderous pasts of the heroic vampires come more into the fore, as does the fact that vampirism typically results in Transhuman Treachery; by later seasons, its pretty well-established that most vampires really are bloodthirsty monsters, that they really do think they are superior to puny humans, and that they are all biologically designed to experience violence and murder and sadism as Better Than Sex and few of them see any problem with this. There are still some "good" vampires but they are a rarity, and it looks increasingly like the Broken Masquerade was all just a ploy to get the sheep to trust the wolves. At the very least, even if vampires are not inherently evil, vampirism pretty clearly is.

It might also be worth noting, however, that any vampires who seamlessly integrate into society wouldn't be the focus of the show. Dozens of perfectly pleasant vampires show up to Bill and Sam's mixer at the end of season 6.

Amnesiacs Are Innocent: During his period as an amnesiac, Eric not only forgets who he is, but also what he is, and develops a much gentler, more innocent personality.

Priapism brought on by drinking vampire blood is amusing if the person it happens to is a Jerk Ass womanizer who even on his better days doesn't listen to anything but what's behind his zipper.

Lorena gets this a lot, thanks to Bill and whatever he can get his hands on. Most notably a flat screen TV.

A Nazi by Any Other Name: Truman Burrell, the Governor of Louisiana. Declaring that vampires have no rights, instituting curfews, shutting down their businesses and seizing their property, setting up a 'camp' to hold them, complete with lethal medical experiments by torture technicians...he all but brags about bringing the Final Solution.

Ancient Conspiracy: The Authority, though it is not so ancient, as it has been around only a couple hundred years.

And I Must Scream: Russell Edgington is burnt to a crisp, wrapped in silver, and buried in cement.

Setting up Season 4's major cliffhanger, considering the parking garage that he was silvered and buried in is now a glorified hole.

Despite the fact that vampires have come out of the coffin, the majority of Bon Temps and the world don't believe in other supernatural entities. Werewolves, shapeshifters, and possibly some other groups are all deliberately encouraging this.

And the police think Tara's making things up when she tells them she saw a naked woman standing on the road with a pig.

Andy lampshades this trope, saying "And people thought I was crazy 'cause I thought I saw a pig."

It reaches truly ridiculous levels with the Ifrit in season 5.

Armor-Piercing Slap: Really, Karl. The Egyptian towels were just not necessary. Now go clean yourself up.

In both real life and Greek mythology, maenads were human women who became members of the cult of Dionysus. In the show, they're just short of being deities themselves, if Maryann is anything to go by. Queen Sophie-Anne explains that Maryann and her kind indeed started out as human women (even giving an accurate description of how the Hellenic women became absorbed into the Dionysian cult) but through blind faith they became immortal and gained a myriad of other special powers. Also, this could be interpreted as an exaggeration of some myths that maenads gained the ability to perform miracles through worship of their god.

The Catholic Church didn't have an official Inquisition for witchcraft, as ancient Church doctrine held that there was no such thing. It was, in fact, heresy to believe in witchcraft. However, by the end of the Middle Ages many Catholic and the new Protestant laity believed in witchcraft anyway due to cultural assimilation of pagan folk legends and took to killing alleged witches, often with the support of their local clergy. Witches were usually only burnt if their crimes included heresy (a much more serious charge) or petty treason (murder of one's husband). You were more likely to be burnt for coin forgery than for witchcraft. That said, in-universe, vampires have a well-documented tendency on the show to use mind control to manipulate people into doing what they want, along with infiltrating organizations that hold societal power. Also, Antonia really was a witch, something which would have gone over a lot worse with Church authorities than Galileo's refutation of the idea that the Earth was the center of the universe. Both would have been heresy by simple virtue of contradicting Church doctrine, and the actual witchcraft probably punished much more harshly.

Artistic Title: Opening credit sequence is one of the creepiest things ever. There's very little during an episode that would discourage a watcher from eating because it's all special effects, but the sped-up decomposing real animals crosses the line with some people.

In the books, Maryann showed up to a sex party, checked out the scenery, uttered a few lines and was never heard from again. In season 2 of the show, she was the Big Bad.

Also, Lafayette appeared briefly in the first book and was dead by the end of it. He has a much larger role on the show and has become a real breakout character thanks to Nelsan Ellis' portrayal of him.

As the Good Book Says...: Sarah has a habit of using The Bible to seduce Jason. Lafayette and Lettie Mae quote scriptures to try and free Tara from Maryann's spell. Lafayette notes the irony when he tells Lettie Mae, "Just because Jesus and I have agreed to see other people don't mean we don't talk from time to time."

Asshole Victim: Vampires are marginalized, discriminated against, mistreated, relegated to the fringes of society, and have few or no legal rights. Most of them are also evil assholes who have no qualms whatsoever about brutally killing humans, often for no reason whatsoever, and openly consider themselves superior to humanity. It can be pretty hard to feel sorry for them sometimes.

As of the series 7 finale, Sarah Newlin falls into this category too.

Authority Equals Asskicking: Played straight with Godric and Eric, but totally subverted with Queen Sophie-Anne, who apparently relies on luck more than anything. It's revealed in the third season that Eric was only letting her kick him around because of his respect for her rank; when he switches sides, Sophie-Anne is screwed.

Awesome Moment of Crowning: a literal example. The fact that Bill is covered in his predecessor's blood adds some flavour to the scene.

"Then by the power invested in me by the one true Vampire Authority, whose wisdom and justice we hold sacred, I hereby pronounce you King William Compton of Louisiana."

"Now go clean yourself up; you're covered in queen."

Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Bill and Jessica had their problems, but when Russell nearly kills her, Bill gives the loon a stern talking to, provoking the King into kicking his ass, but Bill's selflessness save her.

Axe-Crazy: Woohoo, is this show full of them. From the sociopathic Rene, and Russell Edgington following Talbot's death to the subdued and apparently sane Lorena and Franklin. Before her reformation in Season 4, a V-addicted Debbie could count too. Even Steve Newlin happens to be this, willing to kill Sookie simply for loving a Vampire. Traitor to her race, indeed.

Badass Family: In season 5, the show starts to play up the idea of vampire bloodlines and lineage so the preeminent vampire family at this point consists of Eric, Nora, Tara, and posthumously Godric.

Bad-Guy Bar: Lou Pine's, the werewolf bar. It's explicitly a bad guy bar because it is populated exclusively by werewolves who are loyal to Russell Edgington.

Batman Gambit: Eric for the entirety of Season 3. Bill tries the same thing by feigning allegiance to Russell, but it fails.

Bed Trick: When Tommy shifts into Sam, he doesn't seem too concerned about having sex with Luna, the woman Sam's been seeing. He initially resisted her advances, but, as soon as she took off her top, all bets were off.

Sookie doesn't like people talking trash about her to her brother. Just...don't.

Likewise, don't ever insult Sookie in Jason's presence. Or try to hurt her, for that matter.

"DON'T YOU EVER TALK ABOUT MY SISTER."

Lorena's is being told that Bill doesn't love her. She tried to kill Sookie for it.

"HOW DARE YOU SPOIL MY OFFERING!"

You better not criticize Godric in Eric's presence. Or compare him to Bill Compton. In fact, when it comes to Eric, do not mess with his maker, his two progeny, or his vampire sister unless you have a death wish.

"If Sookeh is hurt in any way because of you...I will not stop until I drive a stake through whatever semblance of of a heart you have left!" Jeez, Bill.

Tara lays the dreaded "we have to talk" on Franklin Mott (while pretending to be infatuated with him). His response: "Don't say that. Women say that, I black out and wake up surrounded by body parts." Okay, Franklin, so you're saying a Dear John letter is the better way to go...

Beware the Nice Ones: Amy is generally an easy-going flower child...but when she wants her Vampire Blood...

Season 3, episode 9: When Sam snaps...he snaps hard.

Hell, he counts a demi-god among his kills. He had help, but still...

Sookie, for all her hang ups, is a genuinely nice person and will forgive the people she loves for a lot. But push her too far and she'll laugh maniacally as she shoves your husband's remains down the garbage disposal. And she’ll make you watch.

An evil example; Russell was, at first, quite pleasant and genial, and his relationship with Talbot was adorable. Even when he started getting sinister, he was still very much Affably Evil. Then Eric staked Talbot and he lost his temper in a very public fashion.

Nice Guy Hoyt sure knows how to hit the sore spots in his ex-girlfriend Jessica after half a season of being played about.

In season 6, Jessica eats most of Andy's half fairy children. It's an accident, and she suffers major guilt over this, but still.

In season 1, it's a serial killer who preys on women who sleep with vampires. In the end the killer is revealed to be Rene Lenier, whose real name is Drew Marshall.

Season 2 has Maryann Forrester, the maenad. For most of the season its a Big Bad Ensemble between Maryann and the Fellowship of the Sun, however, the Fellowship are defeated a few episodes before the finale and Maryann assumes the role of the Final Boss.

In season 3, it's Russell Edgington, the 3,000+ year old king of Mississippi and serial interferer with mortal affairs. At first glance, he comes off as Dandy-ish and a bit effeminate. However, between his bizarre hold over the Weres, his Trophy Collection, his age, and his work over the centuries, he's shown to be much more unpleasant than he appears.

In season 4, it's Marnie Stonebrook, a somewhat-pathetic witch who empowers herself by being possessed by Antonia, the ghost of a witch from the Middle Ages who was raped and burned at the stake by vampires infiltrating the Catholic Church. She was presumably drawn to Louisiana because of Luis, the vampire who brutalized her. When Antonia attempts to leave after seeing innocents killed in their crusade, Marnie firsts lectures her into staying and then outright stops her from leaving. After being shot, Marnie possesses Lafayette and causes a little more mayhem that way.

In Season 5, its Salome Agrippa, a chancellor of the Authority who becomes its Guardian. She digs up Russell Edgington and plots with him to kill Roman, the then current Guardian. After she succeeds into doing so, she becomes the Guardian and turns the Authority into Sanguinstas, a cult who worships Lilith, the very first vampire. She ends up turning Bill dark and using him as her Dragon turned partner. Half way through the season, Lilith comes in and becomes a Big Bad as well, when she manipulates the Authority members and pits them against each other by telling each of them they are chosen. Back in Bon Temps, the Big Bad is Sweetie Des Arts, a character from season 1, who wants revenge on all supernaturals.

In Season 6, its Sarah Newlin and Macklyn Warlow. At the start of the season, it's Warlow, but when he finally appears he isn't all that bad and actually becomes friends with Sookie. At this point, Sarah enters the picture and takes the role. She works with Truman Burrell, and they begin to kidnap vampires and infect them with Hep-V, a virus that slowly kills them. Shortly into the season, Bill kills Burrell and Sarah takes the role solely, up until episode 9, when the vampires are broken free and Sarah is defeated, fleeing the scene. After this, Warlow becomes the Big Bad again and takes on the role of the Final Boss of the season, planning to make Sookie his bride.

In Season 7, its Sarah Newlin. She doesn't really do much this season herself, but Hep-V (spread by her) is the biggest threat of all, killing many beloved residents and indirectly causing others to die as well. Hep-V is also the reason behind the seasons Little Bads, the Hep-V vamps. She is also the primary focus of Eric and Pam's attention.

Season 2: Steve and Sarah can be sort of be considered this, although, they end up as Disc-One Final Boss.

Season 4: Marnie and Antonia. Antonia takes possession of Marnie and begins killing vampires, making her seem to be this seasons Big Bad, until Marnie reveals that she has always had control over her own actions, meaning it was a Big Bad Duumvirate all the while. Ultimately Antonia has a Heel–Face Turn after Marnie has the vampires slaughter many people and leaves the body.

Season 5: Salome and Bill. For most of the season its just Salome, with Bill as sort of a Dragon. But by the end, Bill has become just as crazy and manipulative as Salome.

Big Damn Heroes: Subverted in season one. Bill wakes up to discover Sookie is very near death. Despite it being midday, he decides to try and save her, but ends up a smoking pile of charcoal instead. He gets better, though.

Jason rescuing Sookie and Eric in 2.08, then again in 2.10, plays it straight.

Then subverted again when Jason and Andy try to go and kill Maryann only to make it barely through the crowd where both are almost immediately turned into zombies.

Jason arrives just in time to save Tara from Franklin. And it was awesome.

Sam rescuing Sookie and Hoyt from Sheriff Dearborne and the 'Obamas' and damn near keeping them under control until Jason and Andy show up. Bonus points for doing it completely naked.

Jason and Niall successfully jump in at the last moment to save Sookie from Warlow.

Big Eater: Maryann. She ordered the entire menu when she went to Merlotte's. She also has a seemingly endless supply of tropical fruit and exotic food. Her favorite secret ingredient for her recipes also seems to be a human heart.

Big Fancy House: Russell, the King of Mississippi, has one of these. It literally has a crown on top of it.

Big "NO!": Sookie has one when she hits Cooter with energy from her hand.

Lafayette saw through Maryann's facade within seconds of first meeting her. "I don't know what you is, but I'm feelin' you; and you's a soulless bitch."

That bitch Daphne was working with Maryann all along.

There's also Nan Flanagan, spokeswoman for the American Vampire League. She seems nice enough on television (especially compared to the Newlins), but in person, she's ice cold.

Jessica: You are nothing like you are on TV.

Nan: Aw, thanks.

Bi the Way: Pam, Sophie Ann, Tara and James. Eric might be—or it might have been part of his scheme for revenge against Russell.

Black and Gray Morality: Due to five seasons of establishing that vampires really have no boundaries when it comes to what kinds of horrible things they are willing to do to humans if they feel like it and that any benevolence they exhibit is strictly arbitrary, the show has to literally tap into Nazi tropes in order to make the government look like the bad guys for going after them in season six.

Black Comedy: Eric's apparent death in the season six finale. One minute he's sunbathing naked on top of a mountain in Sweden... and the next his immunity to the sun wears off and he burns alive while screaming at the sun. Honestly, if you didn't know better, you'd think it was a Dream Sequence.

Poor Jessica. She soon discovers that her hymen is going to keep regenerating no matter how many times she has sex. So every time will be like her rather painful (but later pleasurable) first time.

Vampires in general have superhuman abilities, as well as KryptoniteFactors. And older, more powerful vampires become increasingly vulnerable to sunlight, a millennia-old vampireburns to ash within seconds of getting hit by sunlight.

Being a medium can be useful, since you can talk to and listen to spirits. If you aren't able to keep them from possessing your body whenever the mood strikes them, however, it's much more of a curse than a blessing.

Pure blooded fairies have nifty powers but they are so delicious to vampires that any encounter between them ends with the fairy being drained to death, no matter how "nice" the vampire normally is. Most of them live in self-imposed exile in a desolate dimension for this reason, despite wanting to live on Earth instead. They are very concerned about vampires gaining access to their dimension as well.

And of course, there's Sookie herself, living her whole awkward life before meeting Bill unable to date men because she can't block out their perverted (or secretly gay) thoughts. Also growing up a telepath in a small town can lead to the double whammy of the entire town thinking you're crazy AND being able to hear that very thinking.

Body Horror: From Lorena's infamous Exorcist-esque sex scene to the face of a cursed Pam being rotted away, to the point where she peels a lump of flesh off her cheek, not even mentioning all the usual creepy stuff happening in a setting filled with supernatural monsters...Safe to say sooner or later, something's bound to either disgust you out or scare the pants off you.

Bond One-Liner: Season 4, a Brainwashed and Crazy Eric is about to twist Bill's head off and says, "Here comes death." Sookie distracts Eric long enough for him to let Bill go, Bill turns around and says, "Not for me!" and shoots Eric and two other vampires sent by Antonia to kill him.

Break the Cutie: Jessica: For the first few episodes after she becomes a vampire it seems like she just has one horrible experience after another. (Though this is Played for Laughs in a way.)

The Bro Code: In "Spellbound", Jessica realizes she is not cut out for a monogamous relationship, what with being a vampire with a nuclear-powered sex drive, and breaks up with Hoyt. Hoyt rescinds her invitation to his house. She then goes to Jason and basically throws herself at him, only for Jason to say that "Hoyt's my best friend" and also rescind her invitation to his house. Of course, this is Jason we're talking about, and they get it on by the next episode.

Broken Aesop: Especially in the first season, the show presents vampires as a metaphor for marginalized human groups, especially homosexuals, down to bigoted signs saying "GOD HATES FANGS" and an episode where Bill asks Sookie to marry him in Vermont. The trouble is that vampires really are dangerous to humanity, regarding them at best as sympathetic inferiors who will never understand them and at worst as mindless walking snack food. Vampires do in fact "recruit" humans and occasionally force them to become vampires, a state from which there is no returning. Vampires possess immense resources in the form of a powerful centralized government devoted to the personal welfare of their kind. And this is leaving out the magical powers. This is downplayed in later seasons, perhaps because the writers realized that the Aesop was broken, or because they all along had intended to gradually reveal the darker side of the vampires.

Broken Pedestal: Sookie's parents, who were planning on murdering her to keep her from Warlow. And apparently, her mother thought her as creepy as a child.

Brother–Sister Incest: Avoiding this is Crystal's reason for abandoning her fellow were-panthers. in the season finale she gets back with her brother, Self-Made Orphan Felton, to save Jason.

Also played with in the relationship between Eric and Norah, who, while Not Blood Siblings, were both turned and fostered by the same vampire. They keep referring to each other as brother and sister, even when having passionate sex.

On a MASSIVE scale: those scientists probably didn't count on their captive vampires escaping.

Buried Alive: Eric and Bill do this to Russell at the end of season 3. Bill also tries to do this to Eric, but he is freed by Pam.

Apparently five years of living burial is the usual penalty for a vampire who kills another vampire. Given that this doesn't kill them but causes them to desiccate and go insane, there is some overlap with And I Must Scream.

So does Steve Newlin, who wasn't Killed Off For Real—but the manner of his return is still surprising.

Butt-Monkey: Andy Bellefleur ends up being one a few times, most notably when he's saddled with four fairy babies. Ginger claims this title, however. After being glamored so many times she can hardly remember her name, is smacked around by Pam, held hostage by vampires and humans alike, her only reward seems to be a promise of one day having sex with Eric.

But Not Too Gay: Lafayette does not get a boyfriend until season 3 and has never had a sex scene. Similarly, the idea that most vampires consider gender a footnote at best when picking sexual partners was hinted at throughout the series but never overtly depicted until Season 3.

Finally averted in the final season when Lafayette gets a new boyfriend, vampire James Kent. However, this trope was at work behind the scenes, as James' actor in the previous season quit the show because he did not want to do a same-sex romance.

Calling the Old Man Out: Sam gets to do it to both his biological parents after he discovers they force his brother who's also a shapeshifter into dog fights.

Lafayette combines a Camp Gay wardrobe with a Hard Gay personality. He manages to be just one of the guys on the road crew and as a short order cook, often while rocking guyliner.

Averted by Talbot, King Russell's consort. He's clearly the "femme" partner in their relationship, but he behaves more like a politician's hard-nosed wife than a mincing, limp-wristed Camp Gay. The actor based his performance on his Greek mother.

Characterization Marches On: In the first two seasons Jason Stackhouse was borderline retarded. In the third season he was just pretty damn stupid. After Joining the Sheriffs department and being forced to look after a Hotshot for a little over a year he has been forced to mature and is now fairly intelligent. (He still comes off as a bit dim every now and again but watching season 1 Jason vs season 4 Jason it is almost stunning to see the difference in character.)

As of season 5 Jason is probably the most well-developed character on the entire show with the possible exception of Sookie. He is beginning to question his womanizing ways and is becoming surprisingly introspective.

Poor Pam in season 4. Let's see, there's the rotting spell, losing her maker to amnesia, the painful and gross waxjob, the unpleasant "Vampire Botox" she has to inject in a half-dozen places every night for all eternity, and having to bind herself in silver just like every other vampire in Louisiana to avoid being forced by the witches to walk into the sun, all piled on the fact that she didn't want to sacrifice Eric for Sookie and tried to blow through the witch wall, which caused Eric to basically disown her.Girl just can't catch a break.

Clap Your Hands If You Believe: In "Frenzy", Sophie-Ann explains to Bill that maenads started off as ordinary humans, but gained immortality and other supernatural powers through sheer belief in their god. She goes on to say that the only way to kill a maenad is to thoroughly convince it that it is time for it to die; in Maryann's case, the time to die is the arrival of Dionysus, who she believes will ravish and devour her. Sophie also espouses the theory that all supernaturals came into existence through the power of belief.

In that same episode, Maryann explains to Tara that even though Miss Jeanette was a fraud, she was still able to unwittingly tap into supernatural forces just by performing the rituals; it was Tara's "exorcism" that summoned Maryann to Bon Temps.

Jason is accused of crimes he didn't commit in the beginning of season one.

And Sam's got in on the action, as well. The police in Bon Temps sure seem to be a gullible bunch, don't they?

Cliffhanger: Many, if not all episodes end with Sookie getting into a situation she is woefully unable to handle all by her little human self. Both the first and second season have also ended with a cliffhanger.

Taken even further in the season 4 finale. The plot wraps up halfway through, and the entire second half is spent killing off half the cast, and putting the others in terrible danger.

Iraq war vet Terry Bellefleur, who is genuinely off a bit due to PTSD.

Maryann comes off as a cloudcuckoolander to those who don't know what she really is. In "Release Me", she comes into Sookie's house covered in dirt and blood with unruly hair and a damaged dress, holding a dead rabbit. Tara comments to Eggs that she's "so fucking weird".

Coitus Ensues: The numerous, mostly out-of-nowhere sex scenes are a trademark of the show .

Combat Pragmatist: Pam sprays a mix of water and silver particles on Bill's face, getting the upper hand in their fight. This is noteworthy, as Bill's only concern in a fight with another vampire is age, not tactics. And you can bet that even among vampires she just pulled a dirty trick.

Sam attacks Crystal's father while the guy's back is turned, with a coffee pot no less.

The Comically Serious: Eric Northman is usually the terrifying Mr. Fanservice but damned if he doesn't have some of the funniest lines in this show. His prodigy Pam is no slouch either.

Comic-Book Time: The first three seasons took place over what can't be more than about two months, and the entire series in less than two years, eighteen months of which is in timeskips between or at the end of seasons. This certainly puts things like the Sheriff's reaction to yet another murder in his county and Sookie's fatigue about the constant violence in her life since she met Bill in a rather startling perspective when you think about it.

TV Holly is clearly based on her namesake from the books. But she is also meant to represent Halleigh Robinson, Andy's eventual wife, as Holly is the one who gets engaged to Andy in the series.

Godric is a composite of both Appius Livius Ocella, Eric's actual maker in the books, and Godric/Godfrey.

Conspicuous CG: The werepanthers' cat forms are clearly animated. While real wolves are used for the werewolves, it was probably much harder for the studio to secure properly-trained panthers.

Continuity Nod: In season 3 Terry mentions he rescued an armadillo and is now caring for it. This wasn't referenced again until season four, when Terry and Arlene are standing outside their recently burned down home and Terry is holding him.

This gets another Call-Back in season six, when Sam is clearing out Terry's cubby and finds an armadillo keychain.

Convection Schmonvection: Partially averted. The supernaturally tough vampires can withstand a rocket-propelled grenade detonating a few meters away with no visible injuries. Jason, on the other hand is blinded, severely burned, and would probably have been a goner if not for Jessica.

Conveniently Coherent Thoughts: There are occasionally a few stray thoughts that don't give Sookie exactly what she's looking for, but they still almost always fall into line with what we expect the character to think ("this jerk better leave right now" "Doesn't she look like a tasty little meal" etc..) and never anything random like "did I water my plants?" or "what a cute skirt, I could use one like that."

Cool Old Lady: Grandmother Stackhouse. She's an old Southern lady, proper and prim, but she's also very sweet, funny, and doesn't take shit from anybody.

Charlaine Harris, the author of the Southern Vampire Mysteries book series, makes a brief appearance in the season two finale talking to Sam at the bar. He was apparently telling her what had been happening in the town, because she says "I certainly never expected anything like that to happen here."

In the first episode, there are pictures posted behind the bar at Merlotte's, one of which is of Charlaine Harris and Alan Ball.

Harris reappears in the series finale as the director of Pam and Eric's commercial.

Darker and Edgier: Though they both deal with the same general themes, the books have a lighter feel to them than the show, for which many of the characters from the books were given Darker and Edgier "make-overs."

In the books, Russell Edgington is described as a "gay Hugh Hefner" and is a rather laid-back vampire, although notably his people attempted to kill Bubba, as they didn't realize that he really was Elvis. On the show? Holy. Shit. He's a magnificent bastard with designs on taking over the vampire kingdom of Louisiana, with a pack of werewolves strung out on his 2,810-year-old blood as his bruisers.

Calvin Norris in the books was the noble patriarch of a backwoods Southern family and had a normal and successful blue-collar job. On the show he is a violent, white trash meth dealer.

Sookie indulges in taking matters into her own hands because of her power-related problem.

When Jason takes the vial of V, he spends hours trying to make his problem go away and ends up having to get the blood drained, he even had a blister on his thumb he had been going so long.

Tara does while showering in her dream, after having escaped Franklin.

Daywalking Vampire: Sunlight is usually very dangerous to vampires, but they can resist the sunlight temporarily if they are pumped with fairy blood. Also, Warlow, who is a fairy who was turned into a vampire. His fairy nature makes him immune to the effects of sunlight, unlike all human vampires.

Deceptive Legacy: Numerous times in the series with people discovering their pasts and families are not what they believed.

Sookie and Jason learn their parents were massive racists against the supernatural who openly hated Sookie for what she was.

Sam discovering how dark his birth family truly was.

While under demonic influence, Hoyt's mother reveals that his father committed suicide and she made up the story of him killed by a burglar to cash in on the life insurance.

Decomposite Character: In the books, Tara owns a clothing store called Tara's Togs. In the series, Tara is a radically different character, and someone else called Tracy owns the store, which is now called Tracy's Togs.

Franklin is a Hot Vampire, cool calm and collected figure, bat-themed detective, has a mysterious past, his own theme music, and is a psychopathic, socially-retarded, psychologically-damaged man-child with severe Yandere qualities. Makes you rethink how romantic the phrase "we'll be together forever" really is.

The show in general, the the standard Vampire Romance genre. While the show will gleefully sexualize vampirism, it's not as quick to romanticize it. Every now and then, you are hit over the fact that they may be pretty, they may be smooth, but vampires are still, first and foremost, blood hungry predators.

Deep South: The show manages to delve into many issues plaguing the American South—poverty, racism, homophobia, drug abuse, child abuse, and religious extremism—without demonizing the setting or the people therein.

Deflector Shields: The magical kind - Marnie creates a light-based one around the entire block Moon Goddess Emporium is situated. It fries vampires on contact and is able to protect against a rocket-propelled grenade. Holly casts one around herself, Sookie, and Tara, as the three of them try to rescue Bill and Eric.

Demonic Possession: Ghosts can possess people, but only if they're already magical in nature. Antonia does it to Marnie, and Mavis to Lafayette.

It took quite a while until anyone in Bon Temps apart from Sam noticed that Maryann wasn't just a slightly kooky, bohemian social worker.

Rene was just a friendly local face until the very end when Sookie figured out that he was actually Drew Marshall. Even then, only Sookie knew about him being the serial killer until after he'd been shoveled in the neck.

Disney Death: Tara gets one in the season five premiere—Pam tries to turn her and Sookie breaks down thinking the transformation failed. It did not, and the consequences may be quite severe.

Distant Finale: A few years after Bill's death in the final episode, we're shown the Bon Temps residents (and all children born in the interim) gathering at Sookie's for Thanksgiving and Eric and Pam's successful business venture.

Dysfunction Junction: Good lord, if it wasn't before then it certainly is by season 4. As of now there's not a single relationship on the show that doesn't involve one of these: lies, cheating, accidental incest or one of the parties having questionable sanity.

Do Not Adjust Your Set: Russell breaks into a newsroom and rips out the news anchor's spine to show the world what vampires are really like before turning it over to the weather.

Doomed Hometown: Somewhat. Bill, Sookie and Jason return from Dallas to find Bon Temps in utter chaos due to Maryann.

Double Agent: Bill spied on Sookie for Sophie-Anne (revealed in the Season 3 finale "Evil Is Going On") and spied Sophie-Anne and the other monarchies for Nan Flanagan and the AVL (revealed in Season 4's "You Smell Like Dinner).

Let's not forget the oft mentioned runaway drug addict/long lost Stackhouse cousin Hadley, who eventually appears as a member of Sophie-Anne's court.

Lilith blood makes Vampires trip balls.

Dumbass Has a Point: When Jason is being interrogated in connection to the murder of a woman he was videotaped having sex with. The tape shows the woman faking her death, Jason freaking out and running away, and then the woman laughing once he's gone. When the cops suggest that he came back later and killed her for real, using the tape to fake his innocence, his defense, which the cops accept? "I'm not that smart!"

Dump Them All: In the finale of True Blood season four, Sookie turns down all three of her love interests. In the case of Bill and Eric, it's a classic "I'm not picking either of you" ending to a Love Triangle. Alcide gets a gentler "sorry, but I don't feel that way about you" rejection.

Drunk on the Dark Side: Happens to Marnie when she's invites the spirit of a 400 year old necromancer to possess her. However, we already see shades of this during her first couple of appearances; after purposefully hijacking the coven's circle for an experiment into necromancy (briefly resurrecting her dead bird) she immediately seeks to bring back a human being. Lord knows where (or how) she intended to acquire a body...

Emotion Eater: Maryann feeds on the lust, anger and pride generated by those around her.

Equal-Opportunity Evil: The Fellowship of the Sun, despite being strawman embodiments of bigotry, have at least one African-American family amongst their ranks. Fear of bloodsucking fiends crosses all races and religions!

Erotic Dream: Basically, everyone who ever drank directly from a vampire and is halfway important: Sookie of Bill and Eric, Lafayette (reportedly) of Eric, Tara of Franklin, and Sam... of Bill. Got turned around once, when Eric had one of Sookie. Jason has one of Jessica.

Eternal Love: Russell and Talbot. Maybe also Bill and Lorena, depending on how you define their relationship.

Evil Feels Good: It's shown that vampires are by nature wanton, gluttonous murderers who actually feel extreme physical pleasure (described as "even better than sex") when feeding directly from a living human, rather than pre-drained blood. True Blood is typically shown to range from unpleasant to revolting, with most vamps finding a blood type or mix that is "at least drinkable". The only reason that ANY of them are willing to drink it exclusively (or only from willing humans) is because they're tired of pretending they don't actually exist. Or because it lets their long-term goals proceed more smoothly.

Exposition of Immortality: During Season 1, Bill is invited to speak at a Church meeting for descendants of Civil War families, since he actually fought in the American Civil War. A photo from the period has been turned up that's of Bill and his mortal family.

Talbot hissy-fits over the tapestry that gets used to put out Lorena after Bill throws burning oil on her because it's centuries old.

Eye Scream: In the season 1 finale, we get treated to a close-up of Bill's eyes BURNING.

Pam sprays water containing silver particles into his eyes in season 3.

Arlene has a blood vessel in her eye burst, apparently telekinetically, by her baby, Mikey.

Face–Heel Turn: Tara flirts with this in Season 4, but ultimately changes her mind.

Bill has sex with Lorena and then breaks her neck and turns her head 180 degrees while still humping her! Don't worry, she's a vampire, so not only does she live, she enjoyed it! Quite possibly the most hilariously unappealing sex scene in the history of television.

A female vampire is brought before the Authority wearing only trousers, a bra and an iStake. Judgement is passed, the iStake is activated, and she implodes into a gory mess.

Eric's fanservice was off the charts in the Season 3 opener. His first appearance featured him completely naked having wild sex with a tied-up woman and then calmly discussing Bill's abduction with Sookie, while still completely naked and then he has a conversation with Pam with a robe he decided not to close all the way. Female Gaze, anyone?

The fanservice is kicked up several more notches, by Alexander Skarsgård confirming in Rolling Stone that he was genuinely naked in every nude scene.

Alcide is a werewolf, which means, of course, he has to be naked before and after transformations.

Being shifters, Sam and Luna also get a lot of nude scenes after transforming back to human form.

Pam's tight vinyl and leather outfits.

Sookie, so many times. The black wig and leather outfit for the werewolf bar springs to mind, although her Merlotte's uniform alone makes many, many folks break out into a cold sweat. And, of course, her Lingerie Scenes.

Jason, more or less all of the time. That he is such a successful ladies' man is no surprise. The shaving scene with Ben adds some Ho Yay in just for the fun of it.

Annoyingly subverted when Sam wakes up from his vampire blood-induced wet dream of Bill (It Makes Sense in Context) right before they kiss. Damn it, I demand to see dailies from that shoot!

Fantastic Racism: Sam doesn't mind the idea that vampires can have rights; he just doesn't want them in his bar. He is actively insulted, though, if you call him a werewolf.

Vampires say that humans "do not feel pain as we do" to justify mistreating them; never mind that they were all human once themselves. This is probably intended as a parallel to how humans treat animals, with the same—false—justification.

The Fellowship of the Sun is a religious movement that can't condone killing vampires but sure does cheer when it happens.

A Fate Worse Than Death: Russell's fate: after being sunburned to near death and listen how the remains of his lover are drained and shredded, he winds up incapacitated with silver and buried in concrete by Eric, Bill, and Alcide.

Faux Action Girl: Sookie. She runs headfirst into any problem boasting that she can take care of herself, but the number of times Sookie has gotten herself out of a mess she put herself in or got into by accident can be counted on one hand. People are constantly saving her and yet she still acts like the sassy Action Girl she believes herself to be.

A Fête Worse Than Death: Maryann's sacrificial rituals consist of orgy raves. Her attempted sacrifice of Sam plays out like a festive white wedding.

Fetus Terrible: Arlene's baby with Rene survives a Magical Abortion and seemed to give her nightmares afterwards. Then things got even weirder and creepier, and Arlene worried that the baby was being possessed by the ghost of its father. It turned out that there was a ghost communicating with the baby, but it wasn't Rene, and all of the trouble it caused was unintentional.

Flashback: Lots of Sookie thinking on her past. And Tara on hers. Sam gets a bit in season 2. Bill and Eric had some both as humans and as vampires, and both Bill and Lorena have been reminiscing more or less fondly about their mutual past.

Season 5 has Pam meeting Eric—it seems that before she was a vampire she was a madam in 1905 San Francisco.

In season 6, we get Ben (Warlow's) flashbacks of being turned by Lilith.

Often seen in season 7. We see Bill's life before being turned, including his first meeting with his future wife, and his fears over heading out to fight in the Civil War. Eric and Pam's past dealings with The Authority and the origins of Fangtasia get a look in. Flashbacks to Tara's childhood also form part of a minor plotline.

The Fog of Ages: Largely averted; Eric can remember his family getting butchered by Russell a thousand years ago, and Salome can remember King Herod's court two thousand years ago. Apparently played straight when, after Vampire Tara's horrible mother forsakes her, Pam promises that Tara won't remember her in a hundred years.

Foreshadowing: A lot of things from later books have already shown up.

In season 1, before Sam's reveal, even to the audience, he and Sookie talk. Once Sookie leaves the room, the focus switches from Sam's face to a painting in the background. The painting shows a dog guarding a helpless, attractive, blond woman.

In the season 1 finale, Hoyt says he'd marry a nice vampire girl if he could find one. In the series finale, he ends up marrying Jessica.

After Miss Jeanette is killed, Tara's mom tells her "There's something evil out there that wanted her soul. If you're not careful, it'll come for yours." Right then, Maryann shows up and pulls Tara into a hug.

In episode 2 of season 3, Terry and Sookie are looking for a man who Sookie saw watching her outside of Merlotte's. His footprints have disappeared, leading Terry to comment that it's impossible for him to have done that, unless he turned into a bird and flew away. "Or a wolf," says Sookie knowingly. Then Terry makes a comment that a coyote or panther is more likely, because he's never seen a wolf around. It comes off as a joke at first because, come on, panthers? In Louisiana? Later in the season, we find out that there's a family of redneck werepanthers living nearby, and suddenly his comment makes a lot more sense.

This is a case of bad book to show translation. Though they are called panthers in the books as well, Sookie makes it clear that the animals described are in fact mountain lions (akapumas, cougars, panthers, catamounts). Every physical description of them in the books confirms this. The show depicts a different type of cat commonly referred to as a panther, namely melanistic leopards or "black panthers".

While most of season 3 is focused on the Russel plot and introducing us to the Weres, in some of the later episodes it begins setting up Jesus and Holly as witches, which were the focus of season 4.

Four Lines, All Waiting: Apart from the main plot of the season, there are several (often intersecting) subplots involving the rest of the cast.

Season 5, so far, is stretching this about as far as it can go. So far, we have Eric and Bill vs. The Authority; Sam, Luna, and the shifters; Terry and his past; Debbie, Alcede, Pam, Lafayette, Sookie and Tara; Jason and Jessica; and The Sheriff vs. the Fairies... with very minimal cross over between plots. Each plot gets about 10 minutes (or less) per episode.

Present Day Godric is probably the most friendly vampire on the show. He's a complete pacifist, only killing when it's necessary like when he killed Gabe to protect Sookie, who Gabe had beaten and nearly raped. Judging from Eric's origin flashback, that used to be different back in the day.

From Bad to Worse: Most of the story arcs on the show involve a situation that starts out as moderately horrible and then gradually escalates to such a point that you're surprised the characters come away from it without post traumatic stress disorder.

What's worse, the audience usually sees the bad things coming before the characters do, making watching the show a little like watching a suspensful horror movie.

Full-Frontal Assault: Sam and Luna after shifting back to human form to attack the hate group in "Everybody Wants To Rule The World".

The Fundamentalist: Steve Newlin, and, by extension, the entire Fellowship of the Sun church.

Maryann takes her devotion to Dionysus *very seriously* .

Season Five introduces the "Sanguinistas", a cult of vampires devoted to fanatical and literal interpretation of the bible. No, not that one, the VAMPIRE bible. The original one. The one that shows God made Lilith (the first vampire) first and made humans to be her food; their endgame is no less than the her reincarnation and the restoration of vampires as rulers of the world and human nothing more than "talking cattle". There's implications that this might not be so literal as they believe, especially when Dieter claims he knew the man that wrote it, and that he was was on mushrooms at the time.

Fur Against Fang: Subverted. Werewolves and vampires just generally dislike each other, which makes sense since they are both disliked by the other species anyway. Some werewolves are addicted to vampire blood but their boss, and main supplier, is a vampire.

G-L

The Gambling Addict: Sophie-Anne. Her success seems to vary—she sucks at scratchies, but kicks ass at Yahtzee.

Sophie's gambling was supposed to show her terrible financial situation, which is why she had Eric selling vampire blood for her.

Genetic Memory: Both Jesus and Lafayette receive and share visions of their magic-using ancestors after doing some V.

Genre Savvy: Sookie, to a degree. She thought silver only worked on werewolves.

In season one, Sam Merlotte wishes that Buffy and Blade were real—because vampires are.

Genre Blindness: Sookie getting out of the car all huffy so she can go running alone through the dark woods. Of course, the Plot Armor saved her.

Tara not realizing that a mysterious social worker showing up out of nowhere and inviting her to live in her mansion where everything is handed to her on a silver platter is just a little suspicious, not to mention too good to be true.

Gilligan Cut: Season Five sees Eric and Bill faced with the choice of either showing their loyalty to the Sanguinistas by drinking what they're told is the Blood of Lilith, or being executed. Bill asks Eric if they're really gonna do it, and Eric dismissively says "It's vampire blood. We're vampires. It's not gonna do anything." They drink it, and then the scene quickly cuts to a crowded street during Mardi Gras with everybody who drank the blood, Bill and Eric included, wandering around acting stoned out of their minds.

Gorn: Vampires drinking the blood of humans is not pretty. Usually there is at least a little bit of blood dripping down the human's neck. And that's if they are being civil. Then there are the times when vampires get staked and pop like bloody balloons.

In Season 5 we're treated to the sight of a werewolf pack eating the rotting corpse of one of their own.

Green Rocks: Vampire blood has traces of that. It not only heals, it sharpens your senses, makes you stronger and occasionally gives you erotic dreams of the vampire it came from. It also can be used as a drug and an aphrodisiac. The effects any specific character receives from "V" seem to depend on what the writers want it to do that day.

Justified in that drugs will affect any person differently. Granted, while the narrative is rather inconsistent in the effects of V, there is a degree of Truth in Television.

Grey and Grey Morality: In a few cases, there are only one or two differences between the "good guys" and the "bad guys."

Groin Attack: Eric performs a rather gruesome one on Dr. Overlark in season 6.

Hate Plague: In order to manipulate Tara into letting her stay with her, Maryann uses her powers to cause a brief Hate Plague at Merlotte's.

He's Dead, Jim: The majority of murder victims thus far have the glassy, sightless stare. Some even have way more blood than the human body should hold pooled around them.

Hollywood Law: The entire arc of Sookie having killed Debbie Pelt. Louisiana is a "castle" state (see 4a), making it very unlikely Sookie would be in any legal trouble for killing an armed intruder inside of her own home. Which wouldn't help her with the werewolf pack any, but does make all her worries about being arrested totally unnecessary.

Additionally, the state of Louisiana apparently has the power to levy war in this particular vision of the United States.

The Bill of Rights are incorporated as federal laws, and the governor of any state cannot unilaterally suspend them; especially the rights of any individual group of citizens. However, it's clear that, even though his legal standing is highly dubious; Gov. Burrell is getting away with it due to massive public approval, though why the feds don't stop him isn't shown (though at this point they may not care).

Homoerotic Dream: Lafayette for Eric, Sam for Bill, and Jason for both Ben/Warlow and Eric.

Honey Trap: A male case with Eric seducing Talbot so that he'll let his guard down.

How's Your British Accent?: Stephen Moyer famously struggles to manage an American Cajun accent. It must have been a relief when a flashback scene puts Bill in an English punk rock bar, and he is able to speak in something pretty close to his natural voice.

Human Sacrifice: Well, not literally human. Attempted by Maryann with Sam Merlotte and by the Fellowship of the Sun with Eric.

Incredibly Lame Pun: The vampire bar Fangtasia. Sookie is incredulous, Bill explains that vampires are very old creatures who fall into habits and, once upon a time, puns were considered the height of humor.

I Feel Guilty; You Take It: Sookie gets a big inheritance—but A)she never liked that relative and B)she feels responsible for his death, because Bill killed him after she told Bill her uncle hurt her. She gives the money to Jason, and Hilarity Ensues.

Ignoring by Singing: Played for Laughs in one episode: Sookie is a psychic, and one of her friends wanted to keep a secret from her. When the psychic tunes into her friend's thoughts, all we hear is "LALALALALALALALALALALALALALA".

I Have a Family: The unfortunate woman that Salome presents to Bill for dinner in "Somebody That I Used To Know" tries this. It does not work.

I Just Want to Be Normal: Sookie regarding her power, which forces her to constantly hear all people's nasty dirty little secrets and ugly emotions. Her grandmother is the only one who sees it as a gift—but only that when it's useful.

In "In the Beginning" Sookie learns that her fairy power is finite, and starts actively draining it,

Bill has this attitude due to being forcibly made vampire by Lorena.

Sam regarding being a shapeshifter. So what if he can change into any animal of his choice? He just wants what every man wants. A good life, a good woman.

I Just Want to Be Special: Jason discusses this with Jessica one night. She points out to him that someone as gorgeous and athletic as him is special in Bon Temps.

Improbable Aiming Skills: Jason displays these on the Fellowship of the Sun's shooting range. Even more impressive is that he nails every target while in a fast-moving quad, not to mention hitting Steve right between the eyes from a long way away with his Paintball Gun of Awesome. And then he nails Eggs right between the eyes at the end of Season 2 and hits Franklin right in the heart in Season 3. On top of all that he was one hell of a quarterback in high school. Word of God suggested in an interview that, while Sookie gets mind-reading powers, Jason got a little bit of Super-Aim for himself.

Informed Ability: Sookie and Jason seemingly remember their parents being very loving. Yet every flashback of them either being confused or outright scared of Sookie in particular. It doesn't help when the only real action we've seen of them was an attempt to drown Sookie to "protect" her from Warlow.

The dancers in the Hot Wings are 100+ years old fairies which Claude explains is how they got so good. What we see of their dancing, however, is mostly average stripclub writhing.

Insubstantial Ingredients: "Your blood tastes like freedom." (Sookie's blood allows vampires to walk in sunlight, at least for short periods.)

Interrupted Suicide: Tara attempts to kill herself, shortly after Eggs is killed. Lafayette is only just in time to keep her from swallowing several bottles of pills, and he has to force her to spit them back out (and may have made her take some ipecac to get her to throw up any that she did swallow). It may also qualify as Driven to Suicide, since she only tries it after her mother brings in a preacher to try and console her (who ends up slamming Eggs, due to not knowing enough about the whole situation).

She tries it again early in season 5, after being turned into a vampire. Again, Pam comes just in time and uses her powers as a maker to stop Tara from trying it again.

In the Blood: Arlene fears Rene's baby will also be a psycho like daddy.

I Take Offense to That Last One!: The sheriff arrives on the scene of Miss Jeannette's murder, discovered left in Andy's car. He tries to get Andy to go home (despite Andy's protestations), claiming he wouldn't be any good as Andy is overworked...also extremely drunk. Andy's response is "I am NOT overworked!"

I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Bill lets Eric go partly because he realizes that killing him would not make Sookie happy, and that an amnesiac Eric might be able to bring happiness to Sookie in a way he couldn't.

Jedi Mind Trick: Vampires are constantly using "glamour" on humans via eye contact, everything from rewriting memories to making them obey commands. Some humans are more resistant than others while Sookie is totally immune to it. In later seasons, humans finally wise up and start selling special contact lenses that block the effect.

Andy Bellefleur in Season One and early Season Two. Good Lord, Andy. Constantly dribbling an Idiot Ball, he's convinced that he is a good cop even though he's actually a drunk who likes to jump to conclusions and genuinely make an ass out of himself, especially after he gets fired and then continues to interrogate people without a badge. On the positive side, he's one of the few Bon Temps residents not prejudiced against Bill, even defending him against the Sheriff, and he later teams up with Jason to save the town from Maryann.

Tommy Merlotte. It's a bit low to act like a dick to the one member of your family who looked out for you, and double so AFTER HE SAVES YOU FROM A DOG FIGHTING RING. He turned his dickish tendencies Up to 11 later, when he complimented Sam for nearly murdering a man, flirted shamelessly with an obviously not receptive Jessica, taunting Hoyt, and MAULING HIM after getting punched in the face.Disproportionate Retribution much?

Possibly explained by Freudian Excuse given in the series 3 finale. Either way, it's a rough fate.

And the first time he shifts into a human being—his brother Sam, who just saved him from prison—he succeeds in both firing Sookie AND being a total douche with Sam's girlfriend that he just fucked. Hardly justified, even with his Dark and Troubled Past.

Arlene. She antagonizes Jessica basically for being in the same room with her, takes weeks to tell Terry that her baby isn't his, and, worst of all, wants to abort her baby despite Terry's excitement and promising to love the child that he knows belongs to Arlene's serial-killing ex.

Slightly justified as it's hinted that the baby will be evil like Rene, or at least influenced by him.

Sam towards the latter end of series 3 becomes this, in the shows attempts to give him and Darker and Edgier backstory

Tara is loyal to Sookie, but in general she is a very unpleasant person.

Maxine Fortenberry with her Fantastic Racism, good god. To her, it doesn't matter who you are or how nice you are, she hates anyone who isn't human or white for that matter. Gets even worse in Season 7 when she joins the rioting townsfolk in trying to kill anything not human.

Karma Houdini: Marnie. All that death for pitiful, selfish reasons and she gets to move on to the afterlife?

Bill, Eric and Pam arguably count as well. They never got any comeuppance for attacking and terrorizing Marnie back before she had any villainous intentions—even the curses that Eric and Pam received were removed.

Kick the Dog: When Hoyt breaks up with Jessica, he scathingly throws in her face all the things she'll never experience as a vampire, like having children or sex without a hymen.

This may be Kick the Son of a Bitch for some, she did cheat on him after all. And later when she did the right thing and admitted it to him, she crossed another line when she responded to his rather justified outrage and inclination to leave her by glamouring him into forgetting everything she just told him and thinking everything was perfect.

When you take a step back and think it over, there actually isn't a single character in the show that never kicked any puppies. Lies, thinking with your dick/ovaries, overly violent reactions at the most inappropriate times, manipulation of emotions, getting away with evil shit, murder when it's convenient and adults acting like annoying, selfish children.

Vampire glamour can excise specific memories, and is performed often. Sookie's telepathy seems to be able to revert this, and she can bring back any memories glamoured away with varying amounts of success.

Antonia's spell on Eric wiped him of almost all his memories; however, he seems to not only know that he's a vampire, but about vampiric feudalism - he is basically an obedient little puppy to Bill once he is informed that Bill had assumed the mantle of King of Louisiana.

Law of Conservation of Normality: Sookie may help the vampire population of Louisiana whenever summoned, but when they don't need her, she's got to go to work and pay her bills and worry about money like everybody else.

Left Hanging: The show never fully explains exactly why Maryann was so obsessed with keeping Tara and Eggs by her side, when in fact they had no role in her master plan to sacrifice Sam that couldn't have easily been filled by anyone else.

Hand-waved by Michelle Forbes; Maryann keeps Tara and Eggs by her side because their emotional turmoil and distress make them easy prey, since she feeds on human emotional energy.

Leitmotif: Sookie and Bill have a warm, positive tune which plays over their romantic scenes, probably to emphasise their Designated Couple status.

Lesbian Vampire: Pam, though she occasionally goes after men to mix things up. So is Nan Flanagan if her one and only sexualized scene is anything to go by. Queen Sophie-Anne claims to be Bi, but she has been exclusive to women for longer than most full-fledged lesbians have been alive. Also, as of season 5, Tara.

Let's Get Dangerous!: Despite the aforementioned character development, Jason Stackhouse is still a generally not-very-serious and mostly incompetent character. But when he puts on his sunglasses and black beanie hat he becomes an incredibly capable badass.

Light 'em Up: Fairies (including part-fairy Sookie) have the ability to blast light out of their hands.

Lighter and Softer: Show Godric is quite a bit nicer than his book counterpart. And that includes his flashback self.

He's actually got two book counterparts—Godfrey and Appius Livius Ocella—and he's significantly better than both of them combined.

Although not much has been revealed about Sophie-Anne's background story, it's obvious she wasn't turned at twelve like her book counterpart.

Lingerie Scene: Quite a few of them. Jessica has a Fetish Fuel one with her Little Red Riding Hood getup and comes to see Jason, and Sarah Newlin does the traditional "lingerie under trenchcoat" for Governor Burrell. The Governor isn't having any of it, but Jason gladly takes up the slack.

Sarah: When a woman comes to you in black lingerie, you unwrap her!

Love Hurts: Sookie gives up a little on Bill when he leaves her with no promise to return. And because he tends to do things without explaining to her.

Love Makes You Dumb: Tara's affection for Eggs causes her to pick up the Idiot Ball late in the second season, and in the beginning of the third season, when she attempts suicide after his death.

Sookie and Bill tend to bring the stupidity out in each other, their single-minded devotion to each other apparently leaving little room in their brains for any coherent, let alone reasonable, thoughts.

A Load of Bull: In the season two finale, Sam takes the form of a white Brahman bull to trick Maryann into believing she successfully summoned Dionysus. Then he impales her on his horn.

When Maryann transforms, she wears a ritualistic bull mask. Technically not a straight example of this trope since it's just costuming, but the effect is the same, giving her the appearance of a minotaur.

Local Hangout: Merlotte's. Sam in fact mentions that he is rather grateful that there are so few places to drink in Bon Temps that his bar is the default place to go get one.

Love Makes You Evil: In his zeal to protect Sookie Bill turns on Eric, sends a killer after Pam and challenges Sophie-Anne to a fight to the death, all to keep Sookie's fairie-ness a secret.

Long-Lost Relative: Sam finds out his birth-parents are still alive, and heads off to find them at the end of season two. Turns out he has a brother too. His relationship with them as well as their... shall we say "curious" family dynamic is the Sam plot of season 3.

In season 6, Sookie and Jason's fairy great-grandfather many times over comes out of the fairy realm on the hunt for Warlow.

Magical Queer: Jesus. Lafayette is this in a literal sense, but he is a main character with depth and his own storyline.

Mainlining the Monster: The series have vampire blood as a hot commodity. It's essentially treated like a very addictive drug.

Male Gaze: And Female Gaze too. Lots of shots of breasts and cleavage, but also several shots of shirtless men, or men's bare behinds, or clothed (and unclothed) crotches. Note that this isn't always necessarily erotic.

Male Frontal Nudity: The guy that the Authority is dining on in "Somebody That I Used To Know".

Manic Pixie Dream Girl. From what we hear about Debbie's and Alcide's relationship, she was a pretty dark version of this trope back then. By the time we see them, she's dumped him and gone even crazier. Also Amy in season 1, who is introduced as this but turns out to be a drug-crazed murderer which Jason finds out when she stakes Eddie.

Man, I Feel Like a Woman: A rare male version, and even rarer dramatic version happens when Mavis realizes she isn't alive, and is just possessing Lafayette's body.

Mavis-in-Lafayette: *while grabbing his crotch* How I make the baby with this, me?

Mistaken for Gay: A shop assistant sees Bill with Eric and comes to the wrong conclusion, somewhere at the start of season 2.

Mistaken for Murderer: In season 1, 96% of Bon Temps was convinced that Jason Stackhouse was behind all the recent, mostly-sexual-related killings, including the death of his own grandmother.

After an "anonymous" tip, Sam is discovered at Merlotte's by police minutes after finding Daphne's dead body. They think he's guilty, even after Andy Bellefleur tries to intervene on his behalf.

Mistaken for Racist: Arlene is stupid enough to use the phrase "you people" when talking to two black people (she meant religious types...maybe).

Modesty Bedsheet: Used rather blatantly after Sookie and Eric have sex. Borders on Fridge Logic since Sookie was on full display moments ago.

Arlene keeps her nightie on for sex in "I Hate You, I Love You".

Deborah Ann Woll obviously has a no-nudity clause in her contract. The measures True Blood takes to keep Jessica's nipples hidden in sex scenes while showing almost every other square inch of her body are heroic.

Eric is fantastic at this because he does it twice in "Evil is Going On". After Sookie has told off all the vampires in Fangtasia and Bill is glaring at Alcide, which prompts Eric to say: "Well, if you two are finished eye-fucking each other, we can go." The second time occurs in that same episode after Eric tattles to Sookie that Bill had manipulated her into falling for him and Sookie kicks him out of her house. While Bill lies on the ground, emotionally ravaged, Eric looks at him and says: "I want my phone back."

Likewise Russell's werewolves, who have the ability to turn into...ordinary wolves. They are not really at all impressive in actual fights with vampires. Nor do they have any special resistance to injury, leading to one case in which Eric literally has to take a bullet for one because Sookie shot at it and he wanted to interrogate the guy before killing him.

More Than Meets the Eye: Bill of all people. Looks like a nice enough vampire who's gone home to mainstream. As of season three we learn from the Vampire of Mississippi that Bill is an upcoming player in vampire politics. And that he may or may not be a valued agent of the Vampire Queen of Louisana.

Season Four reveals that he has been working as an agent for the American Vampire League since the 80s and is part of a conspiracy to take over the vampire power structure

Lafayette, drug dealer, gigolo, overworked hedonist. Who has two legal jobs and an illegal one, to support and take care of his mother who may or may not have disowned him prior to her mental deterioration.

Eric's entire character is like this. Eric is actually an old and powerful vampire but does not have an interest in vampire politics or living extravagantly. This often leads to people making wrong assumptions about him which he is more than happy to subvert in a number of bloody ways. He is also very 'feudal' in his approach to loyalty which some might erroneously construe as weakness and subservience.

Pam, though morally gray herself, has an awful lot of Pet the Dog moments with Eric in season 3.

Fittingly, Eric is possibly the only person who makes Pam show a more emotional side.

Talbot, for Russell.

Motive Decay: Marnie starts with the honorable desire to protect herself and her coven from the vampires, then moves into the more villainous scheme of vampire genocide. Then when all that fails, her tune becomes "Woe is me, I was a doormat my entire life and now I'm a ghost with teh kewl powerz!"

Mr. Fanservice: In a subversion of usual Hollywood casting, there's only one average-looking man in the cast (Andy Bellefleur); the others are all muscle-studs, each with their fair share of admirers (even—especially—the more depraved ones like Eric and Franklin). The women, on the other hand, are slightly more ranged in appearance.

Sookie: And you're in my house, and those are my friends. Plus...Jane Bodehouse.

My God, What Have I Done?: In the Season Three premiere, Jessica frantically tries to keep the trucker she fed on in the second season finale from dying.

Season Four has a quite surprising one: It's actually Antonia, not Marnie, who has this reaction when their plan to wreck the reputation of vampires results in numerous innocent people being killed, and Marnie has to Hannibal Lecture her into continuing to work together.

Neck Snap: Constantly done in the series, justified due to the strength of vampires. Beautifully subverted when Sarah Newlin ties it on a human woman in season six and her victim is more confused than anything at the pitiful attempt to turn her head around.

Not What It Looks Like: Tara's mother says this when Tara catches her with Reverend Daniels, and the reverend tries to spin a story about how he accidentally spilled something on his pants.

Obfuscating Stupidity: Yvetta the Estonian dancer. Written off by Eric and Pam as an airhead gold digger, she's actually a cardiologist back in her homeland, which she reveals to Pam while chaining her to a stripper pole after freeing Sookie from Fangtasia's basement.

Oblivious to Love: Tara has been in love with Jason ever since he defended her against her abusive alcoholic mother when they were children. He doesn't realize that Everyone Can See It until Lafayette points it out to him.

Oh, Crap!: A quite subtle one in season three; after Tara bashes Franklin's head in with a mace and then runs out of the room. Sookie informs her in the next episode that vampires completely dissolve into blood when they die, leading to a blink and you'll miss it shot of Tara's reaction.

The spirit of Marnie coming back to possess Lafayette. Lafayette's reaction is priceless.

The look on Eric's face when Bill "evolves" and suggests blowing up Tru Blood factories.

Reversed by Talbot (Russell Edgington's "husband") who, despite taking the more feminine role in the relationship, is taller than Russell.

Also reversed by Eric and Godric (depending on how you interpret their relationship); Eric is practically a giant while Godric, who is depicted as the dominant one in the relationship, is unusually short for a man.

They wear white or pastel clothes that wouldn't be out of place at a sixth-grader's ballet recital.

They seem to literally eat and drink light.

They live in a sunlit realm full of trees and flowers and crystalline ponds.

They enjoy sunshine, swimming, dancing, and being naked while doing any of these things.

As of season four, it seems that all of the above is an illusion created to keep the half-humans they've lured into the fairy realm under their control. Real fae are inhuman, angry, dirty, and live in a barren wasteland as a result of the vampires hunting them down. Their attitudes are more like The Fair Folk.

They can enter the human realm and interbreed with humans.

And some of them, at least, REALLY enjoy giving birth. Not the conception (though they may enjoy that as much as humans do), the actual giving birth.

Their blood is addictive to vampires, and as a result they hate and fear them.

They have some kind of odd force field powers, which can throw people and objects around, break chains, and even disintegrate people.

As seen by a pregnant Maurella and Niall during dinner with Sookie and Jason, fairies seem to really like consuming absurd amounts of salt.

Vampires can appear in mirrors and are unaffected by crosses and holy water.

With some exceptions (Bill, Eddie, Godric, Jessica), the vampires treat humans like pets at best, and snacks at worst.

Apparently, the older vampires get, the more susceptible they are to sunlight: Bill, at 170, withstood the sunlight for several minutes, whereas Godric, at 2000, ignited in blue fire within a few seconds of exposure.

Vampires have some sort of psychic connection with people who drank their blood directly from the source—they sense their emotions and can find them anywhere and the person in question has Erotic Dreams of them.

Similarly, makers seem to have some connection with their progeny, which means they can find them, mentally call them—and feel when they die.

The older a vampire, the less blood they require.

Some vampires can fly.

Vampires can do nifty mindtricks on humans, such as hypnotizing them, taking away their memories and even putting music in their heads. It seems to be a very intrusive procedure, though, and is harmful when done too often.

Vampires have extremely gory deaths when they are staked, vomiting blood and then dissolving into a giant puddle of blood.

The fangs on these vampires seem to come from the "wrong" place in the mouth. Whereas most vampires have extended or extensible canines (the teeth two from center, that are pointy in humans anyway), here, they have fangs that poke out from the position of the teeth on either side of the incisors. It's conspicuous in the teaser for the first episode, with the redneck vampire in the convenience store, and other places. Curiously, it appears not to be consistent; some of the vampires have their fangs in the standard place.

Our Were Beasts Are Different: The werepanthers of Hotshot apparently don't know that they are different from standard Hollywood weres, since they try to infect Jason by biting him. It doesn't work.

Somewhat deconstructed around the middle of season 5: after the inconceivable trauma and heartache that's basically been the entire show thus far, she reveals the fact that she's now once again stuck in the middle of some supernatural psychosis and is along for the ride whether she wants to be or not. "MUST BE THURSDAY!" The fact that this happened when she and Alcide were about to get frisky after a night of VERY heavy drinking before she puked on his boots on top of the fact that they were going after Russell Edgington, possibly the most threatening vampire in the WORLD that they all thought was dead except for the fact that Bill and Eric wanted him to suffer more really didn't help her normal go-get-'em attitude.

Police Are Useless: The show goes back and forth on this, but mostly Andy and other cops are just completely outclassed when dealing with supernatural entities, and sometimes, in Jason's case, a bit clueless.

Pretty much everyone who speaks out against the threat posed by vampires comes across as at best inarticulate, at worst racist bigots. The simple fact that prior to the invention of True Blood most vampires killed a lot of people as part of their regular feedings habits is commonly overlooked in favor of their (alleged) current diet of True Blood. Likewise, it is fairly common knowledge that vampires have Hypnotic Eyes, but suggesting that they might use them regularly (which they do) is implied to be seen as being paranoid.

Diet Pepsi Lime. Really, the product placement in this show seems to be becoming a Running Gag.

Abita Beer, a Louisiana microbrew, is mentioned at Merlottes, including a neon sign prominently behind the bar.

"Powers can't be traded like fucking Pokemon cards!"

Property of Love: The series at least until the third season has this as one of it's basic premises. Sookie have given herself to Bill out of love, without being hypnotized like so many other fangbangers. Also, being his makes her off-limits to other vampires.

When Bill is about to be tried for Longshadow's staking and sentenced to siring Jessica, the vampire preceding him is having his fangs torn out as punishment for feeding on a human belonging to another vampire.

In Season 5 Steve Newlin tries to buy Jason from Jessica.

Plot Armor: Sookie. She should be dead about fifteen times over by now.

Lampshaded by Lafayette in season 5, as well as why it's not always a good thing: "Oh, you'll survive, it's what you do. But you sure leave a trail of bodies behind. You're the fuckin' angel of death."

Protagonist-Centered Morality: A core feature of the show. The main characters are effectively the "heroes" by default, most especially in the eyes of Sookie herself, who is literally willing to overlook or forgive murder so long as the perpetrator is somebody she likes. The vampires are often cast as being an oppressed minority fighting for equal rights, even though it is shown that they consider humans to be little more than food and slaves. Sookie tends to only get upset about this when it negatively impacts her personally or somebody she cares about.

Preserve Your Gays: The show kept Lafayette alive when the book actually killed him, his body would have been found at the beginning of season two it the show stayed accurate to the book. He ends the series alive, which is more than most.

Psycho Sidekick: Roy, one of the witches in Marnie's/Antonia's coven, who tries to goad Tara into shooting Sookie and gets excited when he sees Bill's commandos gruesomely killed by three vampires.

Who can forget Queen Sophie Anne and Eric in Season three, Episode One?

Sophie Anne: *after screaming in rage, has Eric pinned to the wall* "With all due respect? I am due A LOT more respect than that, Mr. Northman. And I'm sorry to compromise your manhood like this, but hell hath no fury like a vampire queen broke. Move. The. Blood."

Terry and Andy's bitchy grandmother. She complains about Sookie's presence at Terry's funeral, calling her a weirdo, complains about all the 'negroes' there, and openly asks if Lafayette is a boy or a girl.

There's a few implications that it may be Single-Target Sexuality; it's not that Tara was raped and now loves women instead, it was that Tara threw away everything in her life in Bon Temps and started a new life elsewhere, rather unexpectedly ending up in bed with another woman in the process because she happens to be everything "Toni" needs in her life at that moment.

Actually, its more implied that Tara just never tried women before, particularly where Sookie asks her why she never told her about liking girls before and she replies that she "didn't know".

Reality Ensues: One effect of coming out into the open that vampires weren't ready for? The IRS would target them for decades of unpaid taxes. It turns out the reason Sophie-Ann embarks on her selling of V is because she's lost most of her fortune to the IRS and has to keep up her lavish lifestyle.

Also kind-of the case with Tommy Merlotte. His "skin-walking" shifting is pretty literally tearing up his insides every time he does it, but after realizing how much he's completely screwed up his life, and everyone else's lives that he's touched lately, he decides to do it one more time to encounter a surefire beat-down if not deliberate murder in his brother's place. Turns out they didn't actually want to kill him, just "kick the shit out of him", but Tommy was so messed up from the shifting that it was fatal anyway, and he asked to be taken back "home" to Merlotte's instead of a hospital, since he didn't want to keep living anyway.

Tara saving Sookie from being shot by Debbie can be viewed as this, especially after she willingly signed on with Marnie earlier in the season.

Redshirt Army: It seems that werewolves are even less apt at taking on vampires than regular humans. Why they continue to pick that fight is something of a puzzle.

Reed Richards Is Useless: In season 6 Terry got his PTSD glamored away by a vampire. That raises the question whether this was also possible with all kinds of other mental problems, rendering therapists, asylums, rehab centers etc. obsolete.

Somebody asks Sookie "What are you?", and she replies "I'm a waitress".

S-Z

Sanity Slippage: Sarah "Noomi" Newlin in Season Seven. Alone and on the run, knowing the True Blood corp and the vampires would want to get ahold of her, and only having one trump card left to play ...but can she play it before a vampire kills her? The visions she has of her ex-lovers pull her in different directions.

Sassy Black Woman: Tara is the most visible example, but basically all the black women who show up are like this, like Kenya and a sober Lettie Mae.

Schmuck Bait: Lafayette warns Jason that if he's using vampire blood for sexual purposes to have one drop, two at the maximum, or things will get "intense, and not in a good way". Jason, downs an entire vial (albeit panicking because he had it on his person while in police custody) and pays the price for it.

Sealed Evil in a Can: See And I Must Scream. Invoked when Eric mentions how Russell should be effectively contained for at least 100 years in concrete and silver, which Russell laughs off as "a nap" for him, swearing that he will get out.

It takes him just over a year, but he does get out.

Self-Deprecation: During the final episode of season four, Arlene in a zombie costume mentions that "zombies are the new vampires". Zombie works had supplanted vampire ones in popularity at that time, most notably The Walking Dead.

Screaming Woman: Ginger seems to scream for just about any reason at all. It is a running gag that virtually any scene involving Ginger will end with her screaming her lungs out, not to mention Eric being able to identify and find her by the sound of her scream alone.

Sex Equals Love: Hilariously subverted when Sarah Newlin was ready to leave her husband after two sexual encounters with Jason...and then thinks he's a spy sent to prey on her, and she can no longer justify what was really just lust.

Franklin and Tara—in this case, Franklin is insane and has convinced himself completely the sex is consensual when Tara is only not fighting back because he's an insane vampire who can kill her without thinking about it.

And in Hotshot with Crystal, Jason, and the other females wherein one bursts into tears when Jason fights her and tells her to get off him. She cries because it was the first time she'd ever had sex she enjoyed.

And in S4E6, in flashback, we see Luis raped Antonia during the Inquisition.

Double Standard: Rape, Female on Male: Averted. When Arlene realizes that she and Terry had sex during the black-out caused by Maryann's spell, she becomes deeply concerned that she may have coerced him (Terry had previously avoided physical intimacy because of his PTSD), saying "I think I might have done something terrible."

Tara: Are you telling me you date-raped Terry Bellefleur?

Also averted with Crystal and every nubile female in Hotshot, as they line up for their turn with Jason, who is wounded, feverish, strapped to the bed, and under the effects of Viagra. He did NOT enjoy it and the scene is creepy as all hell.

Not quite so averted. The director of the episode, David Petrarca, and Alan Ball have basically said that he deserved it.

Also, Maryann's first encounter with Sam (where she catches him trying to steal from her and has sex with him) is just dripping with squick.

Bill asks Sookie to take the clip out of her hair and shake it free before their first kiss.

Jessica in 4x02 when she arrives at Fangtasia.

Shaky P.O.V. Cam: Shows up in the first season finale when Lafayette is kidnapped.

Shape Shifter Identity Crisis: Tommy seems to be starting one, growing out of his self-loathing from having killed Joe Lee and his mother, and then from turning into Sam, and abusing Sam's position as owner of Merlotte's, then sleeping with Sam's girlfriend and kicking her out.

Sherlock Scan: In a flashback (s1,ep02), Sookie was examined by a psychiatrist, who rationalized that Sookie's "mind-reading" was actually an uncanny talent for reading body language. Sookie's mother didn't buy it.

Ship Sinking: Tara and Jason after episode six. It's pretty much justified considering what Jason did, but a little sad since it all but wrecked their friendship.

The ship resurfaces in season 3, but is promptly torpedoed after Jason confesses to Tara that he killed Eggs.

Ship Tease: After breaking things off with Bill, It looks as though the SS Sookie/Alcide was getting ready to set sail. But after fighting off some werewolves led by Debbie, Sookie and Bill have make-up sex on the spot.

Of course, now that Sookie knows the truth about why she first met Bill, and has broken up with him, seemingly permanently this time.

And as of S403, it appears Alcide is back with his ex...and then in S404, he strips naked to shapeshift RIGHT IN FRONT OF SOOKIE, who gets an eyeful.

Eric, Eric, Eric...oh, and Eric. So much more satisfying in the books.

Buffy—"I would love to just rip you open and wear your ribcage as a hat."

Also, when Jason, while "confronting" a vampire in a training scenario breaks a nearby flagpole in half in order to get a wooden stake, another trainee angrily asks him if he thinks he's "some kinda Muslim Buffy with a dick". Doubles as a Crowning Moment of Funny.

The vampire hotel in Dallas is called "Carmilla" after the eponymous character in Sheridan Le Fanu's classic novella.

WWE a couple of times. When Jason's strength is temporarily enhanced by V, Arlene remarks that she watches Friday Night SmackDown with Rene and that nobody on that show, strong as they are, had ever done anything like what Jason just did. In the second season, Hoyt's seen watching Monday Night Raw.

Sookie is a fan of both Sabrina and Charmed, the latter of which the show rather resembled in the fourth season.

Silver Bullet: Silver bullets are useful for stopping vampires, but do not actually kill them. Wood bullets can, though, and some of them are made with silver cores. In the sixth season, UV-emitting silver bullets (straight out of Underworld) are used to inflict extreme pain on vampires to make them easier to capture.

Silver Has Mystic Powers: Silver hurts vampires and werewolves (but apparently not shifters). Silver chains feature often, and are used to restrain vampires.

He reappears at the tail end of the season 4 finale. Now he's a creepy little vampire weirdo.

Slap-Slap-Kiss: Literally. After eating Maryann's souffle, Tara and Eggs begin to physically assault each other before having sex on the living room floor.

Bill and Lorena in 3x03. The two have hate sex (well, from Bill's side) which ultimately leads into Bill literally twisting her neck around backwardsExorcist-style.

Sleazy Politician: Lafayette's client is not above doing V and having sex with men, but he opposes gay and vampire rights as a senator. Also Nan Flanagan: she lies when she says she survives solely on TruBlood.

That and what the public sees is revealed to be totally fake when she questions Eric on behalf of the AVL. Actually, she's a huge bitch.

Slouch of Villainy: Eric Northman is introduced with one of these shots, and he reprises the pose every time his ass touches a piece of furniture.

Snake Oil Salesman: "Miss Jeanette", who took Tara for approximately $1500 on exorcisms for her mother and herself. She even gave Tara "snake juice" to drink. Tara then found out she was a fake, and she more or less confessed to it. Nonetheless, Maryann's claim that she was called to Bon Temps due to Tara trying to exorcise her demon points to Miss Jeanette doing * something* right. Unfortunately, she got killed for it.

Franklin is one of the most fully-realized examples of true stalker mentality in media. He's genuinely shocked and hurt that Tara thinks he tied her to a bed for any reason besides her own safety and is utterly convinced that she's in love with him no matter what her demeanor is.

Stronger with Age: Subverted in that while many of their powers do increase with age, especially their strength and speed, their vulnerability to silver or being killed by wood through the heart does not diminish. Also, they become even more vulnerable to sunlight, which burns young vampires slowly, with older ones burning faster the greater their age.

Stupid Sacrifice: Roy says that if any vampire wants to get to Marnie, they'll have to go through him. One of the vampires he's addressing happens to be a very pissed off Eric Northman. Take a guess at whether Eric is reluctant to lethally go through Roy. Now take a guess as to how much his stand ends up helping Marnie. The answers are, respectively, "He really, really isn't," and "Not even a little bit."

Suicide Attack: After Godric is able to successfully talk down both the Houston vampires and the Fellowship Of the Sun out of massacring each other, Steve Newlin sends Luke into his lair as a suicide bomber, killing two humans and two vampires as well as himself

Suicide by Cop: One could argue that Bud Dearborne did this, after being ordered to drop his weapon, and refusing.

Godric faces the sun on a rooftop. This suicide by sunlight comes complete with weeping friends, inner peace and dissolving into the light.

In the fourth season, a witch tries to make every vampire in Bon Temps do this. She succeeds with a few nameless extras, but most silver themselves down and render themselves immobile to avoid this fate.

Shortly after being made a vampire, Tara tries to commit suicide by tanning bed. As her maker, Pam is not pleased.

Supernatural Elite: The vampires operate on a feudal system. A Vampire King/Queen claims a territory and appoints sheriffs to administer it for him/her. Usually the most powerful and/or oldest vampire becomes the monarch, however, as Bill shows off, the position can be reached if a vampire is politically connected with the Authority who seem to be a governing council above the monarchies.

Surprise Incest: Bill finds out too late that the Bellefleurs—including his would-be girlfriend Portia—are his descendants. She actually gives him a laundry list of reasons why their relationship is technically harmless—the two being consenting adults, several generations removed, and unable to produce children—but Bill still can't get over the fact that he is having sex with his granddaughter, and glamours her into breaking up with him.

Take That!: In Season 4, Bill delivers a delicious one when he discusses how Vampires have infiltrated and controlled powerful institutions throughout history, such as the Catholic Church in the 1600's, and in the modern day, Google and Fox News. This moment also counts as a Crowning Moment of Funny.

In Real Life, Stephen Moyer was asked how he thought Twilight stacked up against True Blood. His response?

Thank Your Prey: Blitzed on vampire blood and in the midst of sex with Jason, Amy turns and slurs that they ought to thank their supplier/kidnapping victim Eddie "for the gift he's given us." Eddie replies with a "Fuck you."

Time Abyss: While most characters believe that Russell Edgington is the oldest vampire in the world at just short of 3000 years in age, Warlow, a fairy who was turned into a vampire, has been alive for 5500 years. Although killed by the aforementioned character when he had just been turned, Lilith, the original vampire, is older than humanity and makes a handful of appearances in season six.

Time Skip: A small one at the end of the first season, with two weeks passing between Rene's death and the discovery of Miss Jeannette's body. There's a second one between the end of season three and the start of season four, with Sookie thinking she's only been in the fairy realm for a few minutes, when it's actually been over a year.

Another one of six months occurs about two thirds of the way through the season 6 finale.

And we get two at the end of the season 7 finale, first to one year and then 3 years.

Title Drop: "Tru Blood" is the blood substitute that vampires drink so they don't have to kill people. Russell Edgington delivers a Title Drop in exactly the opposite spirit (see "The Reason You Suck" Speech above).

Sookie also runs in fourth place to this trope because she constantly runs into danger without a plan, and worse, without a weapon. See Season 3, episode 2 where she runs blindly into the woods to find a werewolf who clearly intends to either kidnap or murder her and taunting him while she does so.Brilliant, Sookie.

Another notable example of Sookie's shining intelligence occurs in the third episode of season three. Perhaps it isn't a great idea to agree to go into a private back room alone with a werewolf that doesn't have the slightest concern about her welfare. Perhaps. However, her plan to get information out of the werewolf succeeded, despite how dangerous the conditions were. If Alcide hadn't been friends with the bouncer, not even plot armor would have been able to protect her against even one werewolf, let alone a whole gang of them.

This is a common trait of anyone mind-controlled by Maryann: Andy and Jason are able to convince a whole bunch of them that Jason is Dionysus with a bunch of flares, a gas mask, and a branch. In addition to being stupid, the mind-controlled people also have no sense of self-preservation, as Jason learns when he threatens to shoot a nailgun into Arlene's head. After a momentary pause, everyone except Terry starts laughing and urging Jason to do it because it looks like fun, including Arlene herself. Later on, Sookie walks in on Jane Boathouse chopping her finger off as her contribution to the idol sacrifice to Dionysus

Bill. Double-crosses Eric, binds him with silver, dumps him into a pit to be buried in cement... and then just walks away before it even covers Eric's head.

For example, as of the beginning of the fifth season Jessica has gone from being a really sweet person to somebody who tells a roomful of humans who were partying with her, "Hey, you IDIOTS! You're boring me, go back to your human lives before I eat you!" And right before this particular moment, when one of them is drinking from a keg she is holding high in the air with one arm, she notices a girl starting to throw up. She abruptly drops the heavy keg so that it almost lands on the drinker, runs over to the sick girl with vampire speed, snaps at her "Not in the house!" and shoves her out the front door.

Too Kinky to Torture: Lorena, in "It Hurts Me Too". After Bill pins her against a wall and tells her that he'll never love her, she kisses him. He does not react well to this, first going for her throat with his fangs, then responding to her urging him to make love to her by doing so extremely violently to the point that he leaves several cuts on her chest and twists her head around 180 degrees. Lorena loves every second of it, and dreamily says "Oh William, I so love you."

Two Lines, No Waiting: Sookie and Bill, Sam, Tara, and Jason all have separate stories that intersect with each other every so often.

And Jessica as well, after being added to the main cast in season 2.

Undead Child: One of the members of the Vampire Authority council ("Authority Always Wins") was a boy of maybe ten years when he was turned.

Undead Tax Exemption: Subverted. Vampires have been legally declared citizens, more or less, in a not-even-remotely-veiled analog to the real-life homosexual rights movement ("God hates fangs").

The show also demonstrates the flip-side of this trope; namely, vampires do not consider themselves as equal to humans, but rather superior. In addition, the human justice system is nowhere near equipped to deal with them, and vampires in the show kill with relative impunity. One even torpedoes the in-universe constitutional amendment to grant vampires equal rights to marry, own property, etc. by killing a reporter on live television because he doesn't want to be equal.

By Season 5, the governor of the state of Louisiana has essentially invalidated the citizenship and rights of all vampires within the state: vampires seen outside their homes at night are breaking a curfew set for them, and subject to being shot on sight by SWAT teams and arrested (really sent to a special lab where experiments are done on them). The show never mentions how massively unconstitutional such actions would be.

Near the finale, Bill is told he's not able to leave someone else his estate, because as a vampire Louisiana law considers him to have legally died after he was turned and thus it goes to his nearest living kin. It is mentioned that this law's being challenged in court, but it'll take years for them to rule either way on whether it's constitutional.

The Unmasqued World: Only for vampires, although in the fifth season finale a shifter reverts to her natural form on live television.

Vampire Bites Suck: Subverted with Bill and Sookie because it's done in the course of consensual sex. Played with in the form of Fangbangers, whose personal kink is getting bitten and drunk from. But for the most part, anybody being bitten against their will is not going to enjoy it at all, and the vampires are usually shown ripping away chunks of flesh in the process of drawing blood.

Viewers Are Morons: Nan Flanagan is a firm believer in this. She has scientific evidence, too!

Villain Decay: Russell is originally presented as both an ancient Chessmasterand a Monster Lord (of vampires and werewolves!), but it doesn't even last out the season. His portrayal in later seasons makes him seem just erratic and weird. Also, he is killed by the exact same means that would kill any newborn vampire.

Villainous Breakdown: Eric has one after finding out his attempt to kidnap Bill was preempted by someone else kidnapping Bill first.

Eric highlights his hair in between enforcing his own sort of order in his domain.

Eric actually runs into Bill at a shopping mall in Shreveport (admittedly because he was seeking him out).

Then there's Maryann popping by Merlotte's for some lunch.

Queen Sophie-Ann seems to spend most of her time playing children's board games.

Villains Want Mercy: Debbie begs Sookie for this after trying to kill Sookie with a shotgun, only failing because Tara pushes her out of the way getting shot in the process. Sookie does not give it to her and returns the favor instead.

Not so sure if its Evil Sounds Deep... more like 'someone stepped on a bag of mice'

Lampshaded when Jason acts as the god-who-comes to save Sam from being sacrificed. He also gives some pretty awesome imitation evil laughter, and the rest of the effect is provided by Andy with a flashlight. Amazingly, it works.

Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Tara, after drinking the "snake juice". Also, the waitress at the vampire bar after Longshadow got staked. Bill after trying to do in Maryann.

Tommy after taking advantage of having shifted into a Fake!Sam to sleep with Sam's girlfriend.

In season 4, Jason, at the roadside just before collapsing after escaping from Hotshot.

What Does She See in Him?: The whole town is scandalized when Sookie takes up with Bill, and Sam in particular wonders, well you know. For that matter, a lot of viewers aren't sure what she sees in him either...

It turns out that they were right to wonder, Bill fed her his blood explicitly so that she would want him and was only interested in her because the Queen wanted him to get close to her. But in all fairness, he abandons his mission after coming to genuinely care for her. But the damage was done.

It's stated in show that she finds being with Bill peaceful because she can't hear his thoughts. It would probably put you off your stroke to hear what your partner was really thinking.

What the Hell Is That Accent?: As expected for a show set in a rural area with an extremely specific accent. Made worse by the extensive Fake American in the cast. The only one who consistently manages to even hit "Louisiana" is Sam Trammell, who is from Louisiana.

In the fourth Season, the Mexican and Spanish accents can get this from native speakers. The normal mispronunciations that English speaking actors do are not present, and indeed sometimes reverse (the lack of rolling "r" sound in words is exchanged for an exaggeration of said sound) which make it hard to know where the actors are from and where they learned Spanish. Doubled by the fact that 400 year old Spain Spanish is spoken in a very similar accent to modern day Mexican Spanish.

What You Are in the Dark: Jason's justification to Andy as to why they're heroes for saving the town from Maryann, even though neither they nor the rest of the town remembers what happened. Of course, this means that they don't remember that they were totally useless in the struggle to defeat Maryann after saving Sam from the mob at the bar, and had their plan gone off as they wanted it to they probably would have killed a whole bunch of innocent people.

Where The Hell Is Bon Temps: While the show generally treats it as a distant suburb of Shreveport, the contradictory specifics of its location and travel times to other cities tend to confuse Louisiana natives.

Who's Watching the Store?: Merlotte's sure seems to always have employees running off. Becomes a minor plotpoint in season 3, when Arlene, Terry and maybe Jessica are the only reliable employees at Merlotte's, and Arlene ends up forcing Sam to hire some more waitresses, because she is massively overworked and pregnant.

In seasons 5 and 6, Sam Merlotte barely even sets foot in his namesake restaurant even though other characters are actively working there, making you wonder which character is handling purchasing and payroll. In the season 6 finale it is revealed that Sam was elected Mayor of Bon Temps, leaving Arlene the bar.

Who's Your Daddy?: Variant 1: Arlene finds out that she's pregnant with Renè's child, and despite feeling immensely guilty about it, tells Terry that it's actually his. She actually never told him it was his, just didn't correct him at first. And she later DOES tell him.

Wolverine Claws: By covering her hands in soil, Maryann can transform them into bestial claws that produce a deadly neurotoxin.

The Worf Effect: Throughout the third season, and in every werewolf vs. vampire fight the werewolf (or 'wolves) has lost. Even fledging vampire Jessica managed to best one!

Yaoi Fangirl: Vampire Queen Sophie-Anne LeClerq, who outright states that she loves to see two men together.

Year Outside, Hour Inside: Sookie enters the fairy realm in the season three finale. At the start of season four, she realises that time passes more slowly in the fairy realm and she returns home to find she's been gone without a trace for a year. Her grandfather is also there, believing a matter of hours has passed when it's been twenty years in reality.

You Are Number 6: Andy hasn't thought of names for his fairy daughters, so he simply calls them Number One through Number Four. It seems to work.

You Are What You Hate: Steve Newlin and Tara as of "Turn! Turn! Turn!".Subverted in Steve's case, as he doesn't seem to have any problems with being a vampire.

Warlow is a fairy who was turned into a vampire—the beings he despises.

You Can't Go Home Again: At least prior to mainstreaming, turned vampires who had families basically had to try and forget them as best they could. Bill and Jessica when both first turned had disastrous reunions with their families which required their makers to glamor the families to forget they happened.

You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: In "Release Me", Maryann has a zombified Eggs kill Daphne, right after kissing her on the cheek and sweetly thanking her for her service.

You Have to Believe Me: Andy throughout season two. Granted, the things he's talking about would be hard to make sense of at the best of times, but he never even seems to consider how unhinged he sounds. "A bull! In a dress! WITH CLAWS!"

And near the conclusion of season four it's happening to him again, after his encounter with a fairy.

All of this is being ironic, since this is a world where the supernatural is known to be real, the people of Bon Temps in particular have personal experience with it and know that it is not limited to just vampires. So one either needs to exercise conscious denial of what goes on, or else confront all the strangeness. Those that do the latter may be more realistic in their perception of their world, but are often regarded as crazy by those in denial.

In the Season Three episode "Trouble", Eric finds evidence that Russell and his werewolves killed his father. And his mother. And his infant sister.

Your Vampires Suck: The very first scene of the show. A very goth gas station attendant tricks some tourists into thinking he's a vampire. After they leave, a redneck vampire shopping for a four-pack of Tru Blood tells him that if the goth ever impersonates a vampire again, he'll kill him. "You have a nice day now!"

This is an establishing moment for the series: Your Vampires Suck because ours aren't all decked out in goth attire, have some sort of ethnic accent, or are Large Hams; many of them can be normal folks who live unnoticed among us. The fact that the first vampire we see in this vampire-heavy show looks like an overweight Larry the Cable Guy may be a big part of what put the show on the map.

Zombie Advocate: Quite a few people, including Sookie herself. Indeed, despite having seen first hand (or having been the victim of) some of the more horrific things that vampires do, Sookie still has a tendency to think of them as being just regular, if undead, folks with unusual quirks.

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